Learning from the World: Good Practices in Navigating Cultural Diversity. Bertelsmann Stiftung Study 2018

The Reinhard Mohn Prize 2018 “Living Diversity – Shaping Society” focuses on diversity in German society, that is the plurality of cultural, religious and linguistic identities found among the people who live in the country. With this focus, the RMP 2018 highlights a variety of successful strategies for living peacefully in diversity. In historical terms, cultural diversity is nothing new or unique for Germany. In fact, though we are often unaware of it, cultural diversity has been a feature of our daily life for a long time. Indeed, religious differences have shaped German society since the Reformation. And Judaism has always been present in the area we now call Germany

There is nothing honourable about honour killings: gender, violence and the limits of multiculturalism

'Honour killings' are extreme acts of domestic violence culminating in the murder of a woman by her family or community. However only in relation to religious and ethnic communities is the concept of 'honour' invoked as motivation for domestic violence. In this paper we argue that ethnicised women are caught up in a collision of discourses. Women who are victims of honour killings are invisible within the cultural relativism of the British multicultural discourse and the private/public divide which characterises the domestic violence discourse. But since September 11, while ethnicised women have become highly visible, they are now contained and constructed in the public consciousness within a discourse of fear and risk posed by the presence of the Muslim alien 'other'. By developing an effective human rights approach to honour killings it could be possible to move away from the 'gender trap' of cultural relativism within the liberal democratic discourse on multiculturalism

Interactive Food and Beverage Marketing: Targeting Children and Youth in the Digital Age

Looks at the practices of food and beverage industry marketers in reaching youth via digital videos, cell phones, interactive games and social networking sites. Recommends imposing governmental regulations on marketing to children and adolescents

Challenges to multicultural education in the 21 century

Post-war immigration into Germany did not challenge education for a long time since work migration was regarded as temporary in the fifties and sixties of the last century. When workers began to settle – mainly as a result to the stop of recruiting workforce in 1973 – education had to deal with the situation of migrant children attending German schools in large numbers. The first answer to this new challenge was the concept of migrant education (Ausländerpädagogik). Multicultural education (´intercultural education` in the German diction) was developed in Germany rather reluctantly in the eighties as a second answer to this challenge when the concept of migrant education was no longer regarded as an adequate one by many educationalists in practice and research. In this paper we will discuss more recent challenges to multicultural education. First we will deal with the fact that multicultural education is now sometimes regarded as a concept of international education dealing with the cultures of the world. Although this is a necessary approach in our world of global relationships, it tends to neglect local diversity. Future challenges to multicultural education concern the combination of local and global aspects within this concept. There is a further problem to be considered with regard to a multicultural education that deals mainly with global relationships: The needs of children from migrant families. The recent PISA study (OECD 2001) has clearly pointed out that the German school system has failed so far to give them access to a good school career that is, moreover, a precondition for economic and social participation. It is a great challenge to improve this situation without falling back into concepts of migrant education. In the third section we will deal with another challenge: While education - though not on all levels of educational policy in all European countries - has acknowledged the fact of a permanent immigration, which demands measures of integration and the preparation of all inhabitants - majority as well as immigrants - for a multilingual and multicultural society, there are also new developments in forms of migration to be taken into consideration. A main point is the question whether the model of integration in the concept of multiculturalism is compatible with transmigration, where migrants live in more than one social and spatial context, either at the same time, in following periods or in a way where social and geographical spaces are split or overlap. We will refer to citizenship education, language education, media education, intercultural communication and the European dimension in these aspects, though with different intensity. Media education will be highlighted in a short section that will end this paper instead of a conclusion

Making sense of assets: Community asset mapping and related approaches for cultivating capacities

This working paper critically reviews some main aspects from asset based approaches highlights key strengths and weaknesses for future research/development. Drawing on a large body of reports and relevant literature we draw on different theoretical traditions and critiques, as well as practices and processes embedded within a broad range of approaches including, widely acknowledged frameworks such Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), Appreciative Inquiry (AI), Sustainable Livelihood Approaches (SLA) and Community Capitals Framework (CCF). Although these are presented as distinct approaches, there is a sense of evolution through them and many of them overlap (in terms of both theories and methodologies). We also include emerging frameworks, including geographical, socio-spatial, visual and creative approaches, stemming from a number of projects within AHRC’s Connected Communities programme and additional collaborations

Representing the refugee: Rhetoric, discourse and the public agenda

The central concern of this dissertation is to examine representation and selfrepresentation as they pertain to this nation’s response to asylum seekers between the Tampa affair in August 2001 and the defeat of the Coalition government in the 2007 federal election. The first half of the dissertation examines the representation of refugees in two of the nation’s prominent newspapers, The West Australian and The Australian. Drawing upon the work of Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Michel Foucault and others it is contended that in the Australian government and media’s representation of asylum seekers Manichean-based ideologies can be traced, which serve to propagate the Orientalist’s project. Furthermore, a close analysis of From Nothing to Zero: Letters from Refugees in Australia’s Detention Centres and Asylum: Voices behind the razor wire, shows that it is only through selfrepresentation that the damaging effects of Orientalism can be challenged. As such the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin are central to this analysis of refugees’ selfrepresentations. In the final chapter the work of Emmanuel Levinas is also used, of particular interest is his concept of ‘face’. Combined with some of the ideas of the aforementioned theorists this demonstrates the centrality of oral discourse and selfrepresentation as sites of life, death and most crucially, hope for those refugees seeking to be accepted into the Australian community. The analysis of The West Australian and The Australian conducted in the first two chapters of this dissertation should be read in this context. While there are many factors that contribute to newspaper production such as audience, editorial influences and advertising demands to name but a few, these are not treated by this dissertation. My approach is entirely focussed on the politics of language in terms of its conception, use and effect. Similarly, in my analysis of refugees’ selfrepresentations, conducted in the final two chapters of the dissertation, these same concerns are fore-grounded. Furthermore, as the representations and selfrepresentations surrounding refugees considered in this dissertation were produced within specific historical and social conditions these also play an important role in informing my analysis. This Masters by Research (English Literature) was written by John Martin Cartner for the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Notre Dame (Fremantle) and submitted in the year 2009

Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 1

This report provides insights into the current practices of multicultural education and the opinions and understandings of New South Wales (NSW) public school teachers around increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in schools and the broader Australian community. The report is the outcome of the first stage of the Rethinking Multiculturalism/ Reassessing Multicultural Education (RMRME) Project, a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project between the University of Western Sydney, the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) and the NSW Institute of Teachers. Surveying teachers about these and related matters seemed a useful first step in considering the state of multicultural education some forty years after its inception (Inglis, 2009). The project as a whole involved a state-wide survey – the focus of this report – as well as focus groups with teachers, parents and students in 14 schools in urban and regional NSW, and a professional learning program informing the implementation of action research projects in each school. Read also: Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 2: http://apo.org.au/node/42670 Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 3: http://apo.org.au/node/42671 &nbsp

Collaborative pedagogy and digital scholarship: a case study of 'Media Culture 2020'

This paper presents an educational case study of ‘Media Culture 2020’, an EU Erasmus Intensive Programme that utilised a range social media platforms and computer software to create open, virtual spaces where students from different countries and fields could explore and learn together. The multi-disciplinary project featured five universities from across Europe and was designed to develop new pedagogical frameworks to encourage collaborative approaches to teaching and learning in the arts. The main objective of the project was to break down classroom and campus walls by creating digital learning environments that facilitated new forms of production, transmission and representation of knowledge. Media Culture 2020 was designed to pilot a novel mode of ‘blended learning’, demonstrating a number of ways in which ‘Web 2.0’ networked technologies might be adopted by academics to encourage open and collaborative modes of practice. The project utilised a number of social media platforms (including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Google Hangout, Google Docs and Blogger) to enhance the learning experiences of a diverse set of students from different cultural and international contexts. In doing so, Media Culture 2020 enabled participants with a diverse range skills and cultural experiences to develop new working practices that respond to the convergence of digital media and art, as well as the internationalisation of media production and business, through the use of open, interactive software